This happens a lot for just about anything that is pulled off the ground and bailed/stacked together. We had an entire pallet of sod crawling with the things, and we didn't find out till we started laying them around the pool.

"For me, I'm probably going to go under," she said. "It's become a nightmare, a total nightmare."

Oh boo-hoo. If you buy hay off craigslist and you don't know the haymaker, you deserve to go under. Now you've introduced fire ants into your area and your neighbors will soon have just as big a problem as you do. The CO dept of agriculture should quarantine your farm and fine you.

JackieRabbit:"For me, I'm probably going to go under," she said. "It's become a nightmare, a total nightmare."

Oh boo-hoo. If you buy hay off craigslist and you don't know the haymaker, you deserve to go under. Now you've introduced fire ants into your area and your neighbors will soon have just as big a problem as you do. The CO dept of agriculture should quarantine your farm and fine you.

Whatever ants are left probably won't survive past Monday, gonna snow with a low temp of 10 F. BUT, sounds like she got suckered, she really should have been much more careful.

The official gave her one more option, however. He said to feed the hay to her cattle before the spring thaw and the ants would not survive in the Colorado climate."I said, 'You're trying to force me to feed this hay'," said Bueche. "And he said, 'It would be easier for us.'"...."It doesn't appear to be really high risk," Hawkins said, indicating that there did not appear to be a queen ant in the load. "Based on what we saw, there is not a colony, just some worker ants."

Feed the hay to your farking cows, the fire ants will die during the winter, and STFU. It sounds like this woman WANTS the government to come in and hassle her so she can complain.

cryinoutloud:Feed the hay to your farking cows, the fire ants will die during the winter, and STFU. It sounds like this woman WANTS the government to come in and hassle her so she can complain.

She doesn't want to feed the hay to the cattle because hers are ORGANIC and the hay has been treated with CHEMICALS. Oh, the humanity.

If she's not going to use the hay for her own cattle she can sell it at a loss to somebody who doesn't give a damn. She is under the impression that she can return it for a full refund, but it sounds like she has a snowball's chance in hell at that.

I used to get my hay at the grocery store like everyone else until I read about the "tan slime" that Big Straw uses to make that crap...take some time to educate yourselves and I think you'll agree that it's better to take your chances with the ants...

No, they won't. The ants will note the change in climate and go to ground to nest immediately. Drones will immediately begin foraging until it is too cold. They will stay underground for the winter and re-emerge in the spring. Those that don't go to ground can live quite cozily in those hay bales through the winter. No doubt about it. This lady's made a real problem for herself.

The Gordie Howe Hat Trick:JackieRabbit: "For me, I'm probably going to go under," she said. "It's become a nightmare, a total nightmare."

Oh boo-hoo. If you buy hay off craigslist and you don't know the haymaker, you deserve to go under. Now you've introduced fire ants into your area and your neighbors will soon have just as big a problem as you do. The CO dept of agriculture should quarantine your farm and fine you.

Whatever ants are left probably won't survive past Monday, gonna snow with a low temp of 10 F. BUT, sounds like she got suckered, she really should have been much more careful.

If all it took was a little cold weather then fire ants wouldn't be the problem they are.

JackieRabbit:cryinoutloud: the fire ants will die during the winterNo, they won't. The ants will note the change in climate and go to ground to nest immediately. Drones will immediately begin foraging until it is too cold. They will stay underground for the winter and re-emerge in the spring. Those that don't go to ground can live quite cozily in those hay bales through the winter. No doubt about it. This lady's made a real problem for herself.

If that was true, then we'd be totally infested with critters from all parts of the world, who can survive anywhere as long as they can be transported there. Fire ants are pretty well documented and while they're creeping northwards, they don't live in Colorado very well.

The "official" line is that they will all die over the winter. They're giving her an out. But she sounds so stupid, she'll probably keep the hay there and alert the authorities next spring when she's both out $4000 worth of hay and has a fire ant infestation.

There are also legions of people who think that any ant of a certain size is a "fire ant" and they go around killing any ant that builds mounds. Nothing to do with the story, it's just a pet peeve of mine. How much you want to bet that the woman alerts the media next spring when, sure as shiat, she has a big "fire ant" problem?

And it's entirely her problem if she bought hay with pesticides in it for her "organic" cows.

If all it took was a little cold weather then fire ants wouldn't be the problem they are.

[www.ars.usda.gov image 510x322]

This map would tend to disagree with your assessment of fire ants and their love of winter. Note the places where there are no dots correlates strongly where things get cold?

Fire ants can and have adapted to cold climates. The map you posted doesn't have much to do with cold temperatures. This is just where the ants have already colonized and the extent to which they have become firmly established. Eradication programs and quantantines have slowed their progress, but they continue to move northward at a steady rate.

Fire ants aren't actually ants, but a kind of wingless wasp. They have stingers and will hold there victim with their mandibles and sting it several times in a circular motion. One ant may sting up to a dozen times and the soldiers attack in the hundreds. They are nasty little critters, to be sure.

To be fair, I know exactly dick about ranching, but I have a very good buddy who runs several hundred head of cattle in Wyoming, which is a tough place to ranch.

As far as organic beef, his family tried to do that a few years ago, but the sharp increase in expenses completely overshadowed the slight premium in sale price. Unless you have a known brand name like Niemann Ranch.

Hopefully the Killer Bees will kill off the Fire Ants in the battle for indigenous invader supremacy.

Fire ants also will not live near Canadians. SO import some Canadians and your problem will be solved. Not the Nova Scotia kind either. They MUST be from the west of Niagara Falls or the magic will not work.

I recently opened a boxed pallett of tiles that were cut and packaged in Turkey. There was a wierd cocoon that was made out of leaves that was attached to the wood packaging. I was curious and opened it up to find the biggest brown pupa, about the size of the last joint of your thumb, wiggling and alive.I personally escourted it to the chicken coop and fed it to my greedy vultures!